Yen Thanh farmers earn billions from raising soft-shell turtles

(Baonghean.vn) - According to households raising soft-shell turtles in Tang Thanh, Yen Thanh, soft-shell turtles are omnivorous, easy to care for, easy to feed, and have high revenue, so many people have successfully become rich.

Receiving us in his spacious house - the result of many years of raising soft-shell turtles, Mr. Thai Huu Hien (Hamlet 7, Tang Thanh Commune) said: In 2000, the family raised poisonous snakes, but found them dangerous so they gave them up. One time, when they went to Ha Tinh to visit, they saw people raising soft-shell turtles effectively, so they were fascinated and immediately brought them home to try raising them.

On more than 2 sao of rice fields, Mr. Hien started digging ponds, building barns, and buying more than a dozen pairs of soft-shell turtles to raise. The first crop was almost empty-handed due to lack of knowledge, so most of the soft-shell turtles died from disease. At that time, many people advised him to stop, but he thought, if he failed the first time and got discouraged, he could not get rich... So he went to farms in Ha Tinh to learn more experience and techniques, and find documents about soft-shell turtles to research.

"Undaunted, I continued to borrow money from banks and relatives to buy soft-shell turtles to raise. From the next batch of soft-shell turtles, I earned more than 50 million VND. Gradually, I expanded the scale, raising commercial soft-shell turtles of the Thai breed with a scale of 250 - 300 turtles.

Thanks to meeting technical criteria, the soft-shell turtles are disease-free, grow well, and can be harvested after a year of raising, each turtle reaching an average weight of 3 kg/turtle; currently the average selling price is 250,000 VND/kg, earning over 200 million VND/year" - Mr. Hien shared.

Wild soft-shelled turtle weighing nearly 1 kg owned by Mr. Nguyen Dang Thanh's family in Tang Thanh. Photo: Van Truong

Also in Hamlet 7, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoi used to raise soft-shell turtles for sale in her garden, in a cramped area. Since 2015, she has invested over 400 million VND to dig 2 ponds to raise soft-shell turtles in Con Loi field. Understanding that the market is favorable for soft-shell turtles (a type of wild soft-shell turtle), Ms. Hoi has invested money to raise them.

The soft-shelled turtle breed is very expensive, it must be ordered from Lao Cai, each soft-shelled turtle weighs 1 kg and costs about 1 million VND. In 2015, she raised over 200 soft-shelled turtles, after 1 year of raising, the harvest reached 3 kg/squid; selling for 700,000 VND/squid, she had a revenue of nearly 400 million VND/2 ponds. From the soft-shelled turtle breeding business, Ms. Hoi's family had money to renovate the house, buy living facilities, and send their children to school.

According to Ms. Hoi, in the cold season, the water in the turtle pond is rarely changed, so to avoid environmental pollution and keep the turtle warm, cover 1/3 of the pond with duckweed, because duckweed has the effect of filtering the pond water, ensuring the health of the turtle. Along with that, it is necessary to use biological products to clean the pond water.

A 3 kg soft-shell turtle costs about 700,000 VND each. Photo: Van Truong

Also in Tang Thanh commune, Ms. Hanh Tuyen's family is currently raising nearly 1,000 Thai turtles; thanks to applying the correct technical process, this crop was a big success, with nearly 800 kg of soft-shell turtles, sold at 300,000 VND/kg, earning nearly 240 million VND.

Ms. Hanh Tuyen said that raising soft-shell turtles is not too difficult, but you have to know how to prevent diseases. The care and feeding are quite simple because soft-shell turtles are omnivorous, using dead animals, eating trash fish bought from the Dien Chau sea, mixed with vegetables, bananas, and bran.

Up to now, the whole Tang Thanh commune has nearly 70 households raising soft-shell turtles, with an annual revenue of 5-6 billion VND. The commune is currently building a website to promote the soft-shell turtle brand to facilitate the buying and selling of soft-shell turtles. The commune is also planning to establish an Association of Soft-shell Turtle Breeders to develop the profession in a sustainable way.

Van Truong